Knowledge and perception about bioethics: A comparative study of private and government medical college students of Karachi Pakistan

INTRODUCTION: Ethics plays an elementary role in current medical practice. Recent advancement in medical technology and its implications have raised many ethical issues and dilemmas in clinical practice, requiring dire needs for incorporation of bioethics into medical curriculum. AIM: The objective of this study is to assess the base line knowledge and perception of medical students regarding bioethical issues in clinical practice based on exposure to formal bioethics teaching in their medical curriculum. SETTING AND DESIGN: This cross sectional study was conducted among medical students of a private and government medical college who were currently enrolled into third to fifth year MBBS. METHODS AND MATERIAL: A pretested questionnaire was used to collect data. A structured questionnaire consisting of 27 questions was used for this study. An Ethics Review Committee approval was taken. ANALYSIS: Data analysis was done under SPSS version 17 and frequencies were calculated. RESULTS: A total of 285 medical students, 145 from private and 140 from government medical college participated in this study. Private college medical students (57%) had slightly better knowledge of bioethics as compared to the government students 43%. CONCLUSION: The study clearly signifies the need of teaching bioethics in the both the medical colleges. Our findings provide strong evidence for major educational initiatives related to bioethics education in medical curriculum.